Tuesday, June 17, 2014

Saturday was a difficult day for
me because the air quality was very bad. When I met with Sarah, the other
American girl, earlier this trip she told me to get an app called air quality
so I could be informed about how clear the air is. Many people will wear masks around
outside when the air quality gets bad. On Saturday the pollution in the air was
visible. It looked like there is a fog all around. The sky was grey and the sun
couldn’t be seen. The app showed that the air pollution was very high in the
“very unhealthy” range on this day, and there were not many people walking around
outside. I went to the lab for part of my day, but I spent most of my day indoors
because I think it is noticeably harder to breathe when the air is this bad.
Hopefully the air will improve soon!

Above shows a screen shot of the
application on my phone called air quality. Another student in the lab gave me
a mask that I can wear if the air quality begins to be a problem for me.

Above is a photo of the weather on
Saturday. Though it is difficult to capture in a photo, there is a blanket of
fog everywhere and the sky is a greyish color.

﻿

On
Sunday the air quality started improve a bit! I went into the lab in the
afternoon, and met up with Jiaqi there. We went to pizza hut with two of her
friends for dinner before seeing a variety show for their graduation. I was
nice to see these girls again because they will also be going on the trip to
Zhangjiajie on Friday.

Below is a photo of Jiaqi and I at dinner.

The variety show was held in a
large auditorium that was packed with people. There were many different dance
teams and skits that were performed. It was very fun to see! At the end there
was a slide show about the places that the students will go after graduation.
It was definitely a special night for the graduating seniors!

Below is a photo
of one of the acts from the variety show!

After a great night with Jiaqi and
her friends, I realize how sad I will be when she leaves because she has become
a great friend and has helped me so much. It has also made me so excited to go
on the trip with her later this week!

Thursday morning we had our usual group meeting that lasted
all morning. I got to hear about all the work that the other students in the
lab have been doing. Most of the people have PowerPoint slides that are written
in English so I am able to understand what they are working on. It is
fascinating to see the incredible work the other students are doing, and
humbling to be surrounded by such brilliant people. Below is a large group
photo with the names of everyone in the lab.

That afternoon I worked on my PowerPoint slides for my
presentation on Friday, and I helped Yuan Shuai with his practice for his TOEFL
test. He takes this next week, so he has been working hard to prepare for it.
All I had to do was tell him when he mispronounced a word, and then read the
passages myself. Most of the Chinese students are able to read and write in
English very well. The most difficult part of the test is the speaking portion.

On Friday morning I finished my presentation
for later that day, and set up a Chinese bank account with Lei Fan’s help. After
lunch I found out we wouldn’t be having the weekly Friday meeting anymore
because so many people have final exams this week and next and need the time to
study. I was happy about this because it gave me the opportunity to try my
first experiment on my own. Yuan Shuai was there to make sure I didn’t electrocute
myself my first time trying the experiment. I only used one material instead of
two so that I could get used to creating the Taylor cone on my own. Below is a
photo of the stable Taylor cone that I made!

Monday, June 2nd, was a holiday in China called
“Dragon Boat Festival”. Professor Xu explained to me that this holiday commemorates
the death of a famous poet named Qu Yuan. This is not a big holiday in China,
but the people that live close to the school will go home and everyone else
will have a day to relax. Below is a photo of the food that is traditionally
eaten on this holiday. It is a mound of rice wrapped in seaweed and filled with
meat or jujubes. The wrapping is used to add flavor to the food, but is not
eaten.

Most people didn’t go into the lab on Monday. When I got
there the only other person in the room was Jiaqi. I worked for a little bit in
the morning, and I went on a long walk with He Yutong around campus in the
afternoon. Afterwards we got lunch in the faculty cafeteria with the other
students from the lab. Professor Xu gave us his faculty lunch card because we
were in the lab on the holiday.

On Tuesday morning I worked on developing a new protocol for
my experiment. To do this I read articles that performed similar experiments.
After lunch I went to the police station with He Yutong, because any foreign
visitor to HeFei needs to register with the police if they are staying for over
a month. I didn’t know what was being said between He Yutong and the woman
working the front desk, but it seemed like there was an unusual amount of
conversation going on between the two. After we left, He Yutong told me that I
was supposed to register with the police 24 hours after I arrived in Hefei.
Instead, I waited about a month! I received a paper with the title “Punishment
of Warning”, but He Yutong told me that it should not be a problem.

Later in the afternoon, Yuan Shuai told me that he built me
my own experimental set-up! I wish I had been able to help him do this, but I
didn’t know he was working on it until he was almost done. It makes me laugh
when I work with Yuan Shuai because he works and walks so quickly that it is
hard for me to keep up. I am happy that I will be able to start my experiment
soon!

On Wednesday morning I worked on my eye model project. Dr.
Roberts recently gave a clear outline and goal of this project and established
communication for all the people involved in this project. Another student at
Ohio State has created a detailed model of the eye. My job in this project is
to determine how the model can be 3D printed. Our goal is to initially make a
very simple model, and to add levels of complexity as we determine what works.

I spent the afternoon going to the bank with Lei Fan so that
I could figure out how to exchange my USD for RMB. I was also very excited on
Wednesday because Jiaqi invited me to go with her on a trip to Zhangjiajie. We
will be traveling there with the rest of her class as a graduation celebration.
We will be leaving on June 13th and arriving back in Hefei on June 17th.
This trip is about a 4 hour train ride away from Hefei. The area looks
beautiful and I am so excited to have the opportunity to travel there!

Thursday, June 5, 2014

Saturday was a cool and rainy day. My goal of Saturday was
to figure out how I could do my laundry. I was told that I could give my
laundry to the front desk, and they would take care of it for me, but this
small task was difficult because I can’t communicate well with the lady from
the front desk. I tried to communicate with the woman through an application I
have on my phone, but this was still very difficult. Eventually I had to call
Jiaqi to translate for me. It will be nice to have some clean clothes soon!

In the afternoon I met Shen Shuwei at the lab to go hiking
up a small mountain that is close to campus called Danshu Mountain. He had 4
other classmates of his that went with us. Unfortunately it was a pretty rainy
day, but it was still so fun to see the beautiful scenery and to meet so many
new people! Below are some photos from climbing Danshu Mountain.

The mountain only took about an hour and a half to climb up
and back down, but it was still a great exercise! Afterwards we went to dinner
and a movie. The plaza that held the movie theater and restaurant was
beautiful! Below is a photo of an opera performance and a large camel statue
found in the plaza. My favorite part of dinner was the milk tea that we got to
drink. I asked for mine to be chocolate flavored, so it tasted a lot like
chocolate milk!

After dinner, we saw the movie X Men. The movie was in
English and had Chinese subtitles. Though I haven’t seen the other X Men
movies, I still really liked it! Overall, this was one of my favorite nights so
far!

Spending this night out with Shen Shuwei and his friends has
emphasized to me one of the beautiful parts of Chinese culture. Though everyone
has been extremely welcoming and generous towards me, I think it is inspiring
to see the generosity that friends show toward one another as well. This night
out everyone contributed in their own way. One friend swiped his card for
everyone to get on the bus, one bought us drinks, another the movie tickets,
one person volunteered to pay for dinner, and yet another paid for the taxi on
the way home. This night was composed of everyone offering up what they could
to make this a great night for everyone. There was never someone asking for
money or fighting over who would pay. I think this kind of generosity it not as
common back in America. If this night was an evening out in America, everyone
would have paid for their own drinks, food, movie ticket, and transportation. I
have felt uncomfortable here because things are not split evenly the way I am
used to, but as I have continually seen people being generous throughout this
trip, I have begun to see the beauty in the generous culture of the people.

On Sunday I had a pretty relaxing day. I slept in and went
on a run on the track in the morning. In the afternoon I went into the lab for
a little bit to do some work and catch up on emails. Overall, this has been
another amazing week!

On Thursday morning I gave my presentation on my
encapsulation project. Overall, the presentation went very well, but after
discussing my research with Professor Xu, I will be taking my research in a
different direction. I will not be testing Avastin because this is a very
expensive drug to buy, and it would be difficult to finish the necessary
experiments in the time I have left (which is about 2 months now, I can’t
believe I have already been here for about a month!). Instead I will be
studying the release profile of microbubbles. This research will be closely
related to Yuan Shuai’s work, and therefore can have a larger impact.

To determine the release profile of a microbubble, I will be
encapsulating Rhodamine in a PLGA bubble. Rhodamine is a toxic chemical that
has fluorescent properties, which makes it easy to image. The concentration
profile of the microbubbles will tell us how long the microbubbles can sustain
release of Rhodamine. If a drug is administered without encapsulation, there should
be a large spike in concentration of the drug, and then a quick decrease in
concentration as the body filters out the drug. The goal for microencapsulation
is to have a gradual increase in the concentration of Rhodamine, and then to
level out a certain concentration for an extended period of time.

The rest Thursday afternoon was spent working on my
presentation of chapters 5 and 6 of the book Essentials of Writing Biomedical Research Papers. Chapters 5 and 6
are about the Materials and Methods and Results section of a research paper.

After going on a run in the evening, I got a text from He
Yutong inviting me to get “toast” with her and her lab group. Professor Xu’s
lab is broken into 3 sections so He Yutong is in a different section of
Professor Xu’s lab. Since the lab groups are right next to one another, I still
see the people from this lab a lot! He Yutong explained to me that toast is
like barbeque food. We met at the gate of the campus, and right outside there
were a bunch of people sitting and eating at tables set up alongside the road.
We had a large group of 11 people around a table, and ordered a bunch of food.
It was pretty spicy, but absolutely delicious. We also all shared a few bottles
of beer. Wengi explained to me that it is a custom in China for everyone to
make a toast to an honored guest and to drink with them. When tapping glasses,
the person making the toast always has their cup below the honored guest.
During this dinner, the other people referred to me as the “customer”. This
made me laugh because they used that word because I was the one recipient of
the customs. Everyone went around the table and made a toast with me.Some of the people were not able to speak
English very well, so they would just say “It is nice to meet you”.I had so much fun at this dinner because I
learned a lot about the other members of the lab. Especially about what NBA
basketball teams they liked!

Above is a photo of the “toast” in Thursday night! Most of
the students in the lab are men. I have heard that the ratio of men to women at
the school is 9 to 1. I have only met 3 other girls in the lab, but I can’t
count the number of boys!

Above is a photo of He Yutong and me from the toast. She has
her eyes closed, but I wanted to put a photo of her up because she was not in
the other 2.

On Friday, I spent the morning finishing my presentation,
returning emails, and doing more research to learn more about my new
microencapsulation project. After lunch I had the opportunity to talk to
Professor Xu about my projects. Professor Xu is leaving soon to go back to Ohio
State University, so I want to make sure that I am prepared to work
independently after he leaves. We discussed how to test the release profile of
the drugs from the microspheres, and how to develop a protocol for this
experiment. We also discussed how the eye model needs to be 3D Printed instead
of made my PDMS. Though PDMS is a better material, the model will have more
details that need to be created by a 3D printer. I will have to find a new 3D
printing material that has better properties than the current material. I am
excited to get started on this work!

After the meeting, I gave my presentation on writing
research papers. I thought that the meeting went very well! I had more
participation from the other students in the lab this week. It has been great
to get some more experience with public speaking. Generally when I give
presentations I get very nervous and I talk fast. I think this experience has
helped me practice slowing down and speaking clearly.

On Friday afternoon, Professor Xu and Dr. Si took all the
students from our lab to another very nice dinner. Professor Xu asked everyone
to translate the names of the dishes into something that sounds appetizing
because some of the dishes have unusual names.Despite the effort, I was still introduced to dishes that were called
Beggars chicken, stinky fish, stinky tofu, and 1000 year eggs. Professor Xu
explained to me that the 1000 year egg is a preserved bird’s egg, and that it
was on a television show for being one of the world most disgusting foods.
Below is a photo of the 1000 year egg. Though it looked pretty gross, it was
pretty good!

Below are a couple more photos from dinner. Dr. Si took a
large group photo on his phone, so I am hoping I can get this from him to post
next week!

After dinner I went back to the lab for a little bit with
the rest of the students. On Friday nights the other students will play video
games if they don’t have a lot of work to accomplish. After a while I left to
buy a candy bar and watch a movie back in my room. Of the things I miss most from
home, other than my family and friends, chocolate desserts are definitely one
of them.

I began my week in the lab by reading an article written by
Yuan Shuai. He sent me this so that I could gain a better understanding of his
research, because much of his work is applicable to mine. While reading through
his article I noticed many grammatical errors and unclear sentences. I spoke to
him about his plans for his article, and he asked me to revise his paper for
him. I spent most of my Monday afternoon doing this. It felt great to be able
to help someone else because I have received so much help the last few weeks.
For the rest of the day I practiced speaking Chinese on my Rosetta Stone
program. Though I don’t know much, there are some phrases that I have noticed
getting stuck in my head. I haven’t had the opportunity to use one of them yet,
but hopefully I will be able to soon!

On Tuesday I began my day by doing more research on
different materials that can be 3D printed. I need a material that is more
flexible than the current material. I brought these ideas to a meeting I had
later that day. After lunch I watched and helped Yuan Shuai with another
coaxial electrospray experiment. This time we used the same liquid for both the
outer and inner portions of the microbubble. Overall, this was not as effective
at making microbubbles in comparison to the prior experiment. I was able to
practice forming a stable cone by changing the voltage applied to the setup. This
is a pretty easy process because Yuan Shuai has done a lot of work to develop
his experiment. Hopefully I will have more pictures of this in future blog
posts! I am planning on building my own coaxial electrospray equipment with
Yuan Shuai’s help either at the end of the week or the beginning of next!

Tuesday was Jiaqi’s birthday, so we went out to dinner on
Tuesday night to celebrate! I had a lot of trouble figuring out what to get her
for her birthday, so I decided to decorate a jar and fill it with the candy I
love. Below are a couple of photos from Jiaqi’s birthday!

The cake in the photo above was half mango and half green
tea flavored.

The meeting on Tuesday night was very beneficial for my
project. One individual in the room brought up the idea of using PDMS to create
the eye model instead of 3D printing materials. I think that this is a great
idea because PDMS is a much softer material than most 3D printing materials.
The tricky part of this project will be to find a way to create a sphere of
PDMS. There were a lot of great ideas that were brought up, but the first one I
plan to try is to create the model by casting it. I will need to figure out how
to make the sphere hollow. One good idea was to use a dissolvable substance,
like soap, to create the hollow center. Overall, a lot of great ideas were
shared at this meeting, and I will need to do more research to figure out which
one is most appropriate.

On Wednesday morning I spent my time working on a
presentation for my meeting on Thursday morning. My presentation is about the
progress of my microencapsulation project. After I was done working on my
PowerPoint slide, I started working on a mold for my eye model project. Below are
2 photos of the outline of the mold I made.

On Wednesday evening I took care of a problem I had been
having in my room. For the last couple of weeks, I would find a large black
beetle in my room. The body of the beetle was about the length of AA battery,
and it had long antenna. I had a lot of trouble capturing or killing the beetle
because it was all black, hard to see, and very quick. Eventually I was able to
kill this one, but a few days later another very large beetle showed up. When I
came to my room on Wednesday afternoon, I found 4 smaller beetles. I think they
started a family in my room! With Jiaqi’s help translating, I asked the front
desk for help. They decided to have me switch rooms instead of trying to kill
the beetles. I spent the rest of my night moving my belongings to another room,
but I am very happy I don’t have to worry about the beetles anymore!